Suchergebnisse

ObjectiveTo examine the effectiveness of a writing assignment that required undergraduate students in a diversity course to explore their family heritage. The purpose of this assignment was to increase self‐awareness of students regarding how structural characteristics of ethnicity, race, social class, and religion shaped the contributions family made to their emerging values, beliefs, and attitudes about interacting with others.BackgroundInstructors for family diversity courses need more instructional strategies that foster self‐awareness, which is commonly identified as a first step toward developing cultural competency. One such strategy is described in this paper.MethodA mixed method approach was employed, with both quantitative analysis of the frequency of responses from a course effectiveness survey and a descriptive narrative analysis of the text contained in 36 students' family heritage reflective papers.ResultsMost students reported increased self‐awareness of their family history, racial and ethnic identity, role of social class and religion on socialization, and acknowledged contextual experiences of privilege or discrimination.ConclusionOur findings suggest that most students deepened their understanding of personal assumptions. They recognized the need to remain open to understanding and showing more empathy toward individuals from diverse backgrounds.ImplicationsOur results highlight the opportunity for instructors to be intentional in sequencing instructional activities, promoting respectful peer‐driven learning and dialogue, recognizing students' worldview, and being open to faculty development opportunities.

OBJECTIVES: Racial/ethnic disparities in health in the U.S. have been well described. The field of "cultural competence" has emerged as one strategy to address these disparities. Based on a review of the relevant literature, the authors develop a definition of cultural competence, identify key components for intervention, and describe a practical framework for implementation of measures to address racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. METHODS: The authors conducted a literature review of academic, foundation, and government publications focusing on sociocultural barriers to care, the level of the health care system at which a given barrier occurs, and cultural competence efforts that address these barriers. RESULTS: Sociocultural barriers to care were identified at the organizational (leadership/workforce), structural (processes of care), and clinical (provider-patient encounter) levels. A framework of cultural competence interventions--including minority recruitment into the health professions, development of interpreter services and language-appropriate health educational materials, and provider education on cross-cultural issues--emerged to categorize strategies to address racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. CONCLUSIONS: Demographic changes anticipated over the next decade magnify the importance of addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. A framework of organizational, structural, and clinical cultural competence interventions can facilitate the elimination of these disparities and improve care for all Americans.

The calls for evidence-based practice (EBP) and cultural competence (CC) represent two increasingly influential mandates within the mental health professions. Advocates of EBP seek to standardize clinical practice by ensuring that only treatment techniques that have demonstrated therapeutic outcomes under scientifically controlled conditions would be adopted and promoted in mental health services. Advocates of CC seek to diversify clinical practice by ensuring that treatment approaches are designed and refined for a multicultural clientele that reflects a wide variety of psychological orientations and life experiences. As these two powerful mandates collide, the fundamental challenge becomes how to accommodate substantive cultural divergences in psychosocial experience using narrowly prescriptive clinical practices and approaches, without trivializing either professional knowledge or cultural difference. In this Introduction to a special issue of Transcultural Psychiatry, the virtue of an interdisciplinary conversation between and among anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social work researchers in addressing these tensions is extolled.

Abstract
The EU's cultural initiative 'the European Capital of Culture' (ECOC) includes high identity political aims. It requires the designated cities to introduce and foster local, regional, and European cultural identities. In addition, the cities have used the designation as an opportunity to promote national cultural identity. Audiences of the ECOC events recognize and interpret different kinds of representations of territorial cultural identities from what the cities have to offer in culture. However, the contents of these interpretations vary drastically in the ECOCs. The article discusses whether the competence of interpreting the representations of territorial cultural identities is related to some social determinants of the audiences. Based on a questionnaire study conducted in recent ECOCs-Pécs (Hungary), Tallinn (Estonia), and Turku (Finland)-the study indicates that, for example, education, source of livelihood, and active cultural participation impact the interpretations of the representations of territorial cultural identities.

Cultural competence is described as a set of skills, values, and principles that acknowledge, respect, and work toward optimal interactions between the individual and the various cultural and ethnic groups with which an individual might come into contact. Scholars have been critical of cultural competence training because the three-dimensional approach which is its foundation fails to address institutional and systemic racism. I posit that undergraduate programs should provide training, so graduates are culturally competent entering their respective fields. I examined cultural competence training within education policy and studies undergraduate programs because these graduates will work within education at all levels from the federal government to the classroom impacting student success. I conducted a qualitative study utilizing document analysis of ten education policy and studies programs across the country. Based on my analysis of program overviews, program courses, course descriptions, course syllabi and website visuals, I found that programs were implementing cultural competence training using a more robust three-dimensional approach. There were however some shortcomings as framed in the literature that each program needed to overcome to implement the most effective levels of cultural competence training, including explicit reference and acknowledgement of racism. These findings suggest that education policy and studies programs are developing more culturally competent graduates, but there are additional practices that could be incorporated to ensure the highest level of cultural competence is achieved.

"…it is both impressive and effective to understand the culture in which you are doing business and demonstrating that understanding to clients. 'There are cultural sensitivities even when you are dealing domestically,' said Neena Gupta, a partner with Gowlings in Waterloo who heads up the firm's India Practice Group. Such cultural skills – speaking another language, being familiar with another culture, having lived outside Canada – while often acknowledged as softer skills are still seen as an enhancement to core legal skills. "We are conscious of the fact that a candidate with linguistic ability and global awareness does bring something to the table that others do not," said Gupta. That something is very good for the business of law."

Front Cover -- Contents -- Section 1: Introductory Materials -- Section 2: Overview of the Curriculum -- Section 3: Step-By-Step Session Descriptions and Instructions -- Section 4: Teaching Techniques -- Section 5: Cultural Exercises -- Section 6: Evaluation Tools -- Section 7: Resources and References -- Back Cover